C82 - The works and words of Nicholas Rougeux

Chicago Green City Market

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 08:07:47 EDT

Chicago's only year-round farmers' market promoting local, sustainable farmers, producers and chefs by connecting them to the public through educational programming and special events.

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Juice

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 10:55:12 EDT

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Bi-Level gold

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 07:11:38 EDT

I love On the Bi-Level. It's a bi-monthly newsletter from Metra written for and distributed only on the trains throughout the fleet since the 1980s. It's one of the tiny gems that I discovered when I started riding.

Each issue comprises no more than four pages and has two regular sections (taking up half the issue): Sounding Board for obscure questions that only Metra can answer and Sound Off, "&helip;the snarky, snotty observations by Metra's customers about fellow commuters…" That's the quote from the SouthtownStar that's been headlining recent issues. Sound Off is always a great read because it covers people complaining about everything including schedules, ticket prices, loud music overheard through headphones, and people clipping their toenails.

Metra responds to each gripe that they publish in a matter-of-fact manner and tends to poke fun at the complainer and this issue is no different. Here's one of my favorites from this issue:

Original letter:

Seathoggers Part 143: In your last issue you said seathoggers "don't care" and "they're just hoping they can get away with it." They are getting away with it because you (Metra) are allowing them to "get away with it." By "allowing" them to "get away with it" you (Metra) are encouraging them. This also includes passengers who take over an entire seat with their "fast food" packages, drinks, etc. And usually they will leave their "mess" behind when they leave the train.

—Ronnie, Milwaukee North

Metra's response:

We assume you (Ronnie) mean that we (Metra) are "allowing" them (seathoggers) to "get away with it" because our conductors are lax about asking them (seathoggers) to stop being rude. No doubt our conductors could do more, but they do have more important duties. And we (Metra) are hardly "encouraging" them (seathoggers). Hardly an OTBL issue goes by without a letter about the issue. Heck, we (Metra) have even devoted cover stories to the problem ("Weeding out seathogs," March 2005). And really, this is a problem that in the vast majority of cases can be solved by you (Ronnie, or any other rider) politely but firmly asking them (seathoggers) to move it (their crap). They (seathoggers) are rudely putting the onus on you (Ronnie or any other rider) to take the initiative, but they (seathoggers) will usually comply, albeit grudgingly, when asked.

—Metra

Golden. I love it—right down to the title Metra gave the gripe. If you ride Metra, I highly recommend reading On the Bi-Level regularly. If you don't, you can always download the latest issue from their Web site.

Civilization

Sun, 03 May 2009 09:36:56 EDT

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Homecoming

Fri, 01 May 2009 09:35:42 EDT

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Apple's clever counter

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 10:25:01 EDT

Apple's counting down to it's one billionth app downloaded and while that's amazing, what intrigued me wasn't the milestone but how they did that neat flipping effect with the counter. It's surprisingly simple.

Their countdown (countup?) page has a nify flipping counter like the old alarm clocks and at first, I thought it was done with Flash but upon closer inspection, discovered it was done with a single image, a smattering of JavaScript, and a clever usage of CSS sprites. They also have a smaller version running on their home page.

The image (seen running down the side of this post) is an image 6,000+ pixels tall with the various states of each number zero through nine flipping from one to the next, but only one state is seen at a time. The JavaScript then changes the background position property at short regular intervals to give the illusion of flipping numbers—similar to the effect of a zoetrope. The effect is repeated at longer intervals for each of the digits in the countdown to one billion.

The cleverness is in it's simplicity. There's no need for a fancy Flash animation—just the basics mixed with a little of Apple's usual flare.

Current

Sat, 04 Apr 2009 02:49:37 EDT

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Models for Change

Sat, 04 Apr 2009 02:42:31 EDT

Models for Change is an initiative to advance juvenile justice reform throughout the country.

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Obama's online evolution

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 10:11:11 EST

Barack Obama has had an amazing politcal ride and being a web designer, I thought it would be interesting to take stock of how his online presence has evolved as he has from a hopeful junior senator to our new president—with screenshots of course.

This is a quick overview of Obama's official online presence. (I know there were many more Web sites and services used but this is just a quick recap of the main sites.) Most of these screenshots and links are from the Wayback Machine so some http://www.c82.net/images in the screenshots are missing. I'll happily update them if anyone has any screenshots of their own. Let me know if you do.

Obama for Illinois (version 1)

Created in early 2003 for Obama's senate run. Some navigation http://www.c82.net/images are missing.

Obama for Illinois (version 2)

Obama's senate campign site was updated about a year after the inital launch to include more information and video links on the home page (this was before the YouTube era). Many http://www.c82.net/images are missing from the archive unfortunately.

U.S. Senator Barack Obama

Obama's 2006 redesign after his election to the senate. The design starts gearing up for another run in 2010 with a new personal logo and some foreshadowing of later designs. A Flash file was originaly displayed in the large white space at the top and wasn't available from the Wayback Machine.

Obama '08 (version 1)

The first version of Obama's presidential campaign site launched in early 2007. The highly successful "O" mark is makes its debut (Watch the interview with Sol Sender on the Obama logo) and there's a clear focus on the voters and online communities. The organization was clean but quite busy and didn't stand out much in comparison to other candidates' sites.

Obama '08 (version 2)

Just a few months after the site was launched, a slightly new version was launched that featured much more information on the home page, drawing criticism from some about the site's decline in design.

Change we can believe in

The Obama campaign rang 2008 with a brand new site, campaign slogan, and a new drive toward involving the voters. This new design gained high praise from many for its attention to detail and its ability to stand head and shoulders above the other candidates' sites.

Side note: I had the honor of working on this site's CSS and provided some accessibility advice early on. Others from Webitects—Matt E., Derek E., and Matt S.— helped with programming on the home page, store, and other parts of the site. Kudos on a job well done, guys.

Obama/Biden

Shortly before the Democratic National Convention, Obama announced Joe Biden as his running mate and the earlier redesign was adjusted to include his picture and refined graphics. The screenshot is of the campaign site that has remained the same since Obama won the election.

Change.gov

The day after Obama's election night speech in Chicago, Change.gov launched as a way to keep the public informed of his transition from senator to President. It's design was similar to his campaign site but had a more authoritative feel to it.

Inauguration fever

Shortly after Change.gov was launched, a site dedicated to the inauguration in January was launched to give the public a one-stop-shop for info on what would be involved.

The new White House

Minutes after Obama was sworn in, the new White House site was launched with a refreshed design in a similar style to the other sites featuring several improved features from the previous version. The new site is still in its infancy but will likely grow leaps and bounds with Obama's presidency in an effort to embrace its three priorities: communication, transparency, and participation.

What's next?

It's clear that Obama has left his mark on the web and these screenshots are just a tiny recap of how he's done it. Now that he has been sworn in, it should be exciting to see how other government sites start to change to embrace those key priorities.

Update (Jan 21, 2009): I found an earlier, more complete version of obamaforillinois.com and added it to the list.

All you need

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 09:17:31 EST

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Placemaking Chicago

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 06:17:15 EST

Placemaking Chicago is an evolving project from the Metropolitan Planning Council and Project for Public Spaces that acts as a guide for planning, designing, and managing public spaces around Chicago.

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National Certification Corporation

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 06:15:48 EST

NCC is a non-profit credentialing program for nurses and other healthcare professionals.

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Focus: Design

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Wonderland

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 06:33:48 EST

A little winter fun for your holiday season. Free wallpaper available for download:

Inspired by the beautiful wallpapers at Vladstudio.

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New Communities Program

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 09:22:20 EST

The New Communities Program, supported by the MacArthur Foundation and coordinated by Local Initiatives Support Corporation/Chicago encourages comprehensive community development in 16 Chicago neighborhoods.

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Hunting the Hidden Dimension

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 06:43:02 EDT

Just yesterday, PBS aired their latest NOVA show—Hunting the Hidden Dimension—about fractals and how they play a role in all our lives. It offers a nice overview of fractals for those who aren't familiar with the concept.

You can watch it on PBS's site for free. (By the time I found out about it, I had just missed the original air time by an hour. It would have been nice to see it in hi-def on TV but a free online version was just fine.) Videos discussing fractals are a rarity so something like this is is a nice surprise worth watching.

Review

The show does a great job of giving an overview of fractals including how the Koch curve came to be and how they apply to kinds of industries from measuring a heart beat to understanding how a forest works from studing a single tree. It falls short in offering much more than that though.

It was interesting when it briefly touched on the formula Mandelbrot created that lead to the famous Mandelbrot set and how he discovered it while working with Gaston Julia's set. That helped draw a nice relationship between the two without getting too technical. It was also neat to see that fractal antennas are in many cell phones becuase of their efficiency.

It would have been nice if they covered more about the artistic side of fractals but I can understand why they didn't. One of the big challenges Mandelbrot faced when trying to prove the usefulness of fractal geometry was to prove fractals weren't just pretty shapes. You could argue that a separate documentary should be made just about those pretty shapes! Maybe after a nother 30 years, PBS might get on that and not just focus on the cliché psychadelic rainbow shapes. Despite the lack of artistic content, I did notice that a few of the short animations looked like they came straight from Ultra Fractal (the gradients were the most telling).

The companion pages for the show offer a few interesting tidbits including an interivew with Mandelbrot, a very basic tool for playing with the colors of the Mandelbrot set, and a piece that demonstrates the infinite complexity of fractals by zooming in on the set several times à la Powers of 10 (watch the video).

Overall, it's show worth watching and it was nice to see.

Fractals for any date

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 01:14:12 EDT

Fall's here and that means it's time for calendars. This year is a little different. Along with a brand new calendar, I've updated all my old calendars to work with any year. Now you can get any calendar at any time.